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Public health scientists and clinicians tout vaccines as one of the greatest achievements of modern medicine. But for many ordinary Americans vaccines have become controversial. Young parents are concerned at the sheer number of shots--some 26 inoculations for 14 different diseases by age 6--and follow alternative vaccination schedules advocated by gurus like Dr. Robert Sears. Other parents go further. In communities like Ashland, Oregon, up to one-third of parents are choosing not to vaccinate their kids at all. And some advocacy groups, like Generation Rescue, argue that vaccines are no longer a public health miracle but a scourge; they view vaccines as responsible for alarming rises in certain disorders, including ADHD and autism.

Diseases that were largely eradicated in the United States a generation ago—whooping cough, measles, mumps—are returning, in part because nervous parents are skipping their children’s shots. NOVA’s “Vaccines—Calling the Shots" takes viewers around the world to track epidemics, explore the science behind vaccinations, hear from parents wrestling with vaccine-related questions, and shed light on the risks of opting out.

Families concerned about health care costs now have one less thing to worry about: As of Jan. 1, children 18 and younger get their vaccinations without having to pay the cost of the vaccine.

Maine's Universal Childhood Immunization Program (www.mevaccine.org) was initiated by the past Legislature and pools funds from the Maine Immunization Program and from private insurers to buy vaccines, which are then supplied to doctors' offices for free.

One in four U.S. parents believes some vaccines cause autism in healthy children, but even many of those worried about vaccine risks think their children should be vaccinated. Most parents continue to follow the advice of their children's doctors, according to a study based on a survey of 1,552 parents. Extensive research has found no connection between autism and vaccines.

Another view: MMR vaccination vindication By The Associated Press - 02/10/2010 It has been obvious for years that a British study positing a possible link between a common vaccine combination and autism failed the physician's injunction to "do no harm." Still, it's significant that the influential medical journal that published Dr. Andrew Wakefield's discredited study in 1998 finally has retracted it.The decision by the Lancet won't change the minds of some parents. It will not entirely dispel the conspiracy theories about how the medical establishment covered up a connection between autism and the MMR vaccine, which protects infants against measles, mumps and rubella. Still, the conclusive repudiation of what has been a sacred text for the anti-vaccination movement should reassure at least some of the families that have refused to accept an overwhelming medical consensus that MMR was safe as well as effective.

In a report published in 2011, scientists pooled data from eight randomized studies of 24,000 children between the ages of 6 months and 7 years. They found that those who received the FluMist vaccine, a nasal spray made with live but weakened flu virus, had a significantly lower risk of acute ear infections compared with children who received a placebo. Among children who ultimately got the flu, those who had been vaccinated had a 40 percent reduction in ear infections compared with children who were given a placebo.

Humans are pattern-seeking primates whose brains evolved to look for and find meaningful patterns in the noise and chaos of nature. When we connect A to B, this process is called learning. Sometimes A really is connected to B, and sometimes it is not. The only reliable way to know for sure is via the scientific method. The problem is that our brains were designed millions of years ago, but science is only a few hundred years old. One of the most nefarious anecdotal patterns in recent years has been a seeming connection between autism and vaccines. Parents whose children are diagnosed with autism (A) search for a probable cause; they remember that they had their children vaccinated (B) and forgivably assume that the correlation is causal. These parents worry for their children, enough sometimes to sue the companies that manufacture the vaccines. But collectively they could contribute to a public-health disaster if enough parents were to stop vaccinating their children and communities began to suffer a return of communicable diseases once thought to be routed.

A week after calling research that first suggested a link between autism and vaccines an “elaborate fraud” a follow-up article in the British Medical Journal now says the researcher behind the study planned to make upwards of $43 million annually selling replacement vaccines and diagnostic products.

Half of Americans are confident vaccines don’t play a role in the development of autism, according to a new poll. The other half say they believe there’s a connection or simply aren’t sure. The results from the poll released Thursday by Harris Interactive and HealthDay indicate just how pervasive fears remain about a link between autism and vaccines.

Despite concerns from some parents that the number of vaccines and the timing with which they are given to young children may contribute to autism risk, a new study backed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds otherwise.

Most children in the United States get recommended vaccines on schedule, but some parents still have misgivings about the shots, questioning whether they are safe or even necessary, U.S. government researchers said on Thursday.

ATLANTA (AP) — More parents are opting out of school shots for their kids. In eight states now, more than 1 in 20 public school kindergartners aren't getting all the vaccines required for attendance, an Associated Press analysis found. That growing trend among parents seeking vaccine exemptions has health officials worried about outbreaks of diseases that once were all but stamped out. The AP analysis found more than half of states have seen at least a slight rise in the rate of exemptions over the past five years. States with the highest exemption rates are in the West and Upper Midwest.

Researchers from the Oregon Immunization Program took a look at the various alternative schedules out there, everything from published advice to homegrown plans, and decided to focus on two specific alternative schedules that parents commonly follow. Both are created by physicians — Dr. Stephanie Cave and Dr. Robert Sears — and both limit the number of shots received at any particular visit to one or two, but Cave’s plan is more restrictive.

The results of an ethics investigation into the doctor whose controversial research sparked fears of a link between autism and vaccines are expected this week.

A medical journal formally retracted a 12-year-old study Tuesday that first sparked fears of a link between autism and vaccines. The move by The Lancet comes after a British medical panel determined last week that the study’s lead author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, acted “dishonestly and irresponsibly” in conducting his research.